When the moon rose in the sky, its light too was suddenly very bright, though pale. It fell upon the thicket of roses, and it became visible that all the flowers, both scarlet and white, had women’s faces.

Pretty faces were hiding in the thickness of the petals. The prickly shoots of the roses began to move like crawling snakes. They intertwined with each other, like hands in an embrace, then separated, grew, and suddenly… Janet looked and could not believe her eyes. Instead of roses, she saw before her a crowd of beautiful girls in white and scarlet dresses. They gathered around her like ghosts. Could it be that these were all the same girls Tamlane had bewitched?

In the moonlight they were themselves again. A host of ghostly figures surrounded the astonished Janet. She looked around them in amazement. They were pretty. Could it be that Tamlane kissed each one in the moments before they died.

«It is his favorite!» One of the girls held out her pale hands with shimmering skin to Janet’s face. The girl recoiled. She liked these beauties much better as pink fences, though even then they could do harm. But now their outfits didn’t have roots in the ground; they could get off and move toward her. All dressed either in white or scarlet, though the outfits all had different styles. You can guess a lot by the style of clothing. For example, what country the person is from. Judging by the dresses, there were both inhabitants of Rodolit and those who came from far lands or even from across the sea. And all were seduced and ruined by the wood elf. Why did they only enter the reserved forest?

«Not everyone is given to choose their destiny like you,» remarked one, «they can also read minds!»

«And not everyone knew the forest was reserved,» added another.

«What do you want?» Janet was frightened. What if they all jumped on her and hurt her. They were jealous. You could feel it in the tone of their voices, rustling like leaves. They were all in love with Tamlane. And he was in love with Janet.

The girl knew that the beauties wanted to strangle her. Eloise, hiding in the hem of her dress, for some reason did not become a girl again, but also did not hurry to protect her with her thorns.

«Free us,» said one of the rose-girls, the prettiest one. «Or take us to Corund, where we will claw our thorns into the body of the fairies’ queen and strangle her to death. We will drink her blood.»

«And then? Then what happens to you. You’re all already dead. Without the enchantments of the fairies’ kingdom, you’d just wither and fall to dust,» said Janet.

«The magic in Corund won’t die even if the queen dies. But we could pretend to be human again, not just for the night. It would be much more comfortable.»

«For even in human form we now retain thorns,» said a pleasant voice behind Janet. She turned around and noticed that the white rose had disappeared from her dress, and instead there was a lady in a gorgeous white outfit, with blond hair and a gold hoop on her forehead, standing on the grass.

«Eloise!» Janet did not immediately recognize her. She had simply never seen the rose-lady in human form before. But now she looked and was amazed. Eloise turned out to be a dazzling beauty. And Tamlane had the stamina not to fall at her feet. Instead, he turned her into a rose instead of going crazy with love and trying to run away with her from the fairies’ kingdom.

Janet noticed that the beauty had thorns growing from the skin of her hands, the same thorns that replaced her finger nails. You could stab to death with thorns like that.

«It’s a clever idea, taking us all to Corund, we could tear the queen apart. She’s the one who tells her knight to turn seduced maidens into helpless flowers. She should pay us for it.»

Janet disagreed with the definition of helpless, but prudently remained silent. The beauties looked too embittered and dangerous, and the thorns on their fingers were too sharp.

«How could I carry all the roses to Corund. There are so many roses.»

«And there will be more,» Eloise said sadly. – She tells Tamlane to bewitch everyone, so as not to miss the one chosen girl who, according to the prophecy, will enter this thicket and who is destined to overthrow the queen of the fairies to take her place.»

«And where is to find such a girl?» Janet wondered.

«Tamlane thinks Rainbow has already found her. But you don’t exactly seem the type to dethrone Medea Shai.

Medea Shai! The name filled the mind with gloom. Janet was uncomfortable to hear it. She fumbled for the star wreath on the grass beside her. It slipped off her head. Maybe she should put it back on and become invisible to the rose beauties.

«If I am the chosen one, I promise to do everything I can to overthrow her,» she murmured, turning to the ghostly ladies. Janet was ready to say anything as long as they wouldn’t touch her. The beauties looked at her with great distrust.

«Don’t let us down,» Eloise sighed. – We don’t want to be roses forever.

They probably thought it was better to be corpses. After all, if Tamlane hadn’t turned them into roses, they would be corpses now. Magic is magic. It can do anything. They would simply never be allowed to leave the country again, lest they turn to dust, which, in fact, they would have been had it not been for magic.

The rose-girls didn’t touch Janet, didn’t prick her with their thorns. They seemed to have hoped for her, however fragile that hope might have been.

They wandered around her all night and whispered. Their voices sounded like the rustling of leaves. Janet dozed off, and when she awoke, it was morning. The roses were just roses again. They were fragrant, white and scarlet in a fringe of green leaves. The hedge, in the center of which an archway formed, seemed part of a fairies’ garden. Janet stood up and walked over to the roses, touching them with her hands.

«It’s not true, you couldn’t be alive…»

As if in response, their thorns stabbed so hard into her palms that the girl cried out. Eloise, clinging to her hem, hissed unhappily, too.

Blood came out of her palms. Janet wondered if she should burn the entire rose hedge of such willful flowers. But just at that moment Tamlane pulled up. His hair gleamed gold in the morning sunlight. It would be the color of ripe rye by day, amber later, and red at sunset. And only late at night would he be a brunette. The amazing thing is not the magic that changes the color of his hair and eyes depending on the time of day, but that all these shades go equally with his beautiful face. Even if he became white-haired like the bloodhound elves, it wouldn’t diminish his beauty one bit. Janet’s heart sank habitually at the sight of him.

Tamlane dismounted and walked under the arch of roses, crossing the border of the magical realm. Today he looked pale, tired, and worried about something.

Janet didn’t tell him she’d been here all night so he wouldn’t worry. She just pressed her lips to his in a long kiss. His lips felt as cold as water in a forest spring, but they were sweet. How sweet the kisses of an elf are! Janet could hardly tear herself away from his lips. If only it had been possible, she would never have left his embrace in her life. But Tamlane was not free. The fairies’ kingdom held him captive. He had no control over himself or his time. And what could be done to make it different? Janet racked her brain and could think of nothing.

«My forest elf,» she whispered rapturously, snuggling against him. «Could a girl who had torn herself away from her friends and followed a wondrous bird into the woods have thought she would meet you here. And that your curls change shade depending on the time of day: they are light in the morning, golden at noon, reddish at sunset, dark in the evening. And at night they should turn charcoal black. Am I right?» – She touched them with her hand. «How fickle you are! But I know you in every form.»

«Are you sure?» How strangely he asked that.

Janet suddenly remembered the bear, the deer, and the unicorn with eyes like his.

«You can turn into beasts?»

«Not only that!»

«Is that bad?»

«It is bad that I am not in control of myself at such moments. I can hurt even you, and then, when I come to my senses, regret it.»

Now he felt faint from the potions Medea Shai had long ago tinctured upon him to rob the knight of his own will. Lately she had begun to offer him more and more elixirs, foaming in a magic crystal goblet adorned with the scales of a sea dragon. It was impossible to refuse them. She made sure he drank them all. And the ghostly miniature dragon on the rim of the glass was moving, as if it also wanted, along with the elixir, to penetrate Tamlane’s body and enslave his mind.

«What do you know about me, Janet?» Tamlane sighed. – Would you still love me if you knew everything about me?»

«Then don’t hide it! Tell me!»

She waited, but he was silent. Tell this girl everything, like in a confession? And then she would run away from him and never come to see him again in this thicket. Without her visits the world would fade, and the magical captivity would become even darker and more burdensome. Still, Tamlane decided to take the risk.

«I shouldn’t have taken those cloaks,» he admitted.

Janet ran her hand across his chest, cautiously, and almost grazed herself on the sharp scales of his armor. «It resembled a dragon cast in steel, taking the size of a human body.»

«They are not steel,» he protested. «They are of a material only the Zwerg can mine. An ancestor made a pact with them and was given the armor as a gift. They make a warrior invincible and as strong as a dragon, but not everyone can wear them. The dragon armor chooses who gets to wear it. The armor, safely locked in the armory, seemed to call to me, and I took it without asking. I put it on with difficulty. The steel dragon seemed to resist me. But strength came afterwards, and devilish strength. I had won the war. Legends began to be made of my strength. And then on the way back to my father’s castle, someone whispered to me that I had done violence by wearing armor that was not meant for me, and now violence would be done to me. And so it was. The queen of the fairies, flying over the forest on her black dragon, spotted me and decided to take me prisoner. Perhaps she was attracted to my unusual armor, forged by her own people, or maybe she was just looking for some entertainment. I fought desperately, but you can’t beat supernatural creatures. No matter how much you burn or cut them down, they rise from their own ashes, form themselves anew out of bloody pools, and become more and more vicious. All my comrades-in-arms are dead, and I now live as a prisoner in a magic kingdom. By day I guard the borders, by night I entertain the queen. She is cruel. She loves to torment both prisoners and her own subjects. What else do you want to know?»

Janet frowned. Something in his story didn’t add up.

«You speak as if you were a man, but you are an elf,» she glanced down. He’s got green sprouts under his camisole instead of legs, alive and snake-like. It made her recoil in fear from him. One could tell at once that he was not human.

«It happens to those especially chosen by the fairies’ queen. Or with people who have a bit of something supernatural in their blood. Once in the realm of fairies, such people themselves begin to become magical beings.

«And how can a person get a little bit of magic blood?»

«It is from a distant kinship with a magical people. Suppose your great-great-grandfather was once seduced by a fair, then she disappeared, but a child with a share of magical blood remained. Or someone in the family married someone who had once been born of a supernatural being. There can be many variations, but they all lead to one thing: a fraction of the magical blood in the family. Members of such a family would either be afflicted with strange ailments or differ in some other way from mortals, but not so much that they could be immediately unmasked. My ancestor did wrong by accepting the armor from the Zwerg, but apparently he needed it to protect his duchy from invasion by unearthly foes. Legend has it that the dragon in whose blood the armor was forged tried to steal his bride from him, and my ancestor killed him in a fair fight. Perhaps the armor have been cursed ever since. But he who wears them never loses a battle.

«But you lost the battle with the evil one if you were taken a prisoner.»

«I was just tired of fighting. You couldn’t kill them, they weren’t tired, and I was only human… I was only human then,» Tamlane could not tell her that the outcome of the battle had been decided by the appearance of the beautiful fairies’ queen who had immediately bewitched him. Janet didn’t need to know that. The presence of a dark rival might scare her off. But sooner or later she’ll find out anyway.

«Janet, there’s one day to break me out of my captivity.»

«Yeah?» Janet’s all tense. The hope that Tamlane could be taken from the fairy realm forever was truly uplifting.

«Before I tell you everything, think about whether you want to break me out of my captivity and take responsibility for it. If you succeed in freeing me, the fairies’ queen may take revenge, and then a series of magical tragedies will ensue in your county: her dragon will begin to burn fields and villages, the water in wells will turn to poison because of her snakes, the fire in hearths and fireplaces will burst forth in the form of fire elves.»

«The fire elves I’ll have to deal with somehow,» Janet interrupted him.

«What do you mean?» Tamlane arched an eyebrow incredulously.

«They’re really nice people, you just have to find a way to get through to them, and show them the anklet of fire in time to keep them from burning.» But she wouldn’t say anything about the latter. «I’ve noticed that the elves if they don’t live in your realm aren’t too fond of your queen.»

«No one likes her, but you can’t disobey her. And I, too, have to obey her, though I don’t want to. I wish I could break free, but I can’t. I need your help.»

He touched her cheek with his hand, and Janet cried out. It was not a hand, but green living shoots. The whole Tamlane suddenly became an unimaginable green creature for a moment, like a living bush or a tangle of snakes hugging her. It only lasted a second. After a moment he was himself again.

«If you want to free me, don’t believe I’m an elf, even if you see otherwise. Believe that I am human, like you. I am with a bit of magic blood, but human. Don’t let me out of your grasp, even if I become a trembling serpent. If you, clutching the monster in your arms, continue to believe it is me, you will set me free.»

«Even now,» she hugged him and waited for him to turn into a snake or a monster, but he didn’t.

«It is not now,» Tamlane corrected her. «It is on the night of the elves equinox. It happens once every thirteen years. It’s only a week away. It is the only night you will be able to rescue me from my captivity.»

«I’m ready.»

«In any case, you have a week to think about it.»

Rainbow, who had been listening intently to the conversation while sitting in the tree, was very unhappy with what she had heard.

«Who would dethrone the fairies’ queen if you two just ran away?» She laughed. «Come to your senses. You can’t leave Corund in the lurch. There are many others suffering besides you, and you only want to save yourselves. You cannot be so selfish.»

Tamlane looked at her in a way that silenced her.

«I believe you will save me, because you are so uncommon,» Tamlane ran his hand through her shimmering hair. «The love of a mere girl would have been enough, but she would have died to save me. You have a bit of magic in you. I can feel it. And that’s what attracts me to you. Or maybe it’s something else. I’ve never seen another girl like you, not in the magic world, not in the human world. And I’ve been to both.»

«And the ladies here and there have tried to seduce you?» Janet said it in a half-joking tone, but Tamlane turned sullen, as if he’d been inadvertently reminded of something painful.

«The love of a fair lady can be very onerous at times, especially if she’s a queen of magic and has so much power,» he complained. «No one likes it when they try to impose love by force.»

«Can it be forced?» Janet couldn’t imagine.

«It can be forced with magic, yes.»

«But you didn’t force it on me. I fell in love with you at first sight. I can feel it in my heart. You did not bewitch me.»

Tamlane turned away.

«Do you think it came out differently?» Janet guessed. «You’re wrong.»

«I wasn’t referring to you and me at all, but to the queen of the fairies. She thinks she has the right to force her subjects to admire her, to fall in love with her.»

«Are they her dragons?» Janet remembered Rainbow saying that the dragons were the fairy queen’s lovers. «Or are they her elves? Or are it you?»

That last one hurt her.

«Don’t speak of that,» Tamlane dropped his gaze and noticed the wondrous fruit languishing in the grass.

«You shouldn’t have picked it,» he glanced at Janet, seeing how she’d been exposed to it. «You might not be able to find your way back home because of it. It makes you crazy, it confuses you, you can’t leave fairies’ kingdom.»

«What am I supposed to do with it?»

«It is nothing. Just take it to the castle and treat your enemy with it, if you have an enemy.»

«And if I don’t?»

«Save it for when he shows up. But remember, this fruit is only harmful to humans; to fairies and elves it will do no harm.»

«How do I get out of the forest?»

«I’ll give you guides. I have many friends in the thicket,» he said, referring to the clawed, furry little beasts she’d already seen. «Better yet, spend an hour in my arms. I’ll share with you all the magic I got myself from the fairies’ queen. She made me an elf. And by becoming an elf’s mistress, you’ll be immune to little magical tricks like this fruit. Even if the fairies fed it to you, you wouldn’t lose your mind, since your body and heart belonged to a particular elf, and not to anyone else.»

He didn’t have to talk her down. His kisses and touches were always extremely seductive, and the carpet of green grass replaced the bed. Roses were jealous of what they could do. Janet could hear their furious hissing as she let Tamlane lay her down on the grass. His fingers tangled in her hair, the green spurs on his torso caressed her, as did his hands. And it felt as if snakes were slithering across her skin. The kisses didn’t burn, but it was as if they left a mark on her body-the invisible seals that she belonged to her elf lover from now on. Love was a beautiful thing, but intimacy was even nicer. Someone in the thicket looked at them with judgment. He was wearing a mask of golden leaves, if only it was a mask. Janet spotted him, but the next moment he was gone.

She and Tamlane hadn’t parted until closer to evening. And they didn’t feel like parting at all.

A Friend of Magical Creatures

Janet was returning from her date with the elf, her hair disheveled and her hands scarred by rose thorns. Pixies were tangled in her hair, and magical creatures followed her out of the woods. There was a whole flock of them. Tamlane had asked them to escort her to the edge of the forest, but they followed her farther. The sunlight seemed to burn them. But the last rays of sunset were already dissolving into the first twilight, and the magical creatures were getting bolder. They were jumping on Janet’s torn train, making faces, dancing right at her feet. And all this was happening in full view of the maidens, who had just finished playing ball and were now standing as a group at the drawbridge. There were several knights with them. Among them was old Ambrose. He was warning the girls about something. Probably about the danger of magical creatures, and then Janet came in with a pack of witch creatures. The creatures had leaped out of the woods after her, and now they were under her feet. Janet looked helplessly at them, but could not chase them away. And here they were, trying to scratch her with their claws or tear out a strand of her glistening hair. Eloise was tired of resisting them, and her thorns made no impression on them.

Several of the maidens fainted as the creatures that came out of the forest began to make faces at them. Others looked at Janet with fear and mistrust, and when she approached, they all scurried away from her like the plague. If she hadn’t been an earl’s daughter and lived anywhere in the countryside, they’d have sent her to the stake for having such an entourage. But no one dared touch the daughter of a local landowner. They only stared at her with horror. Janet herself was frightened when the attendants trotted after her across the field. Tamlane summoned the creatures with a light whistle, and Janet herself couldn’t chase them away, not even with a threat. They only chuckled back and let out their claws. Now how to get rid of such an entourage?

«Let’s get out of here!» It came from the moat, and a jet of water splashed toward Janet’s vicious escorts like a fountain from the back of a whale. The ghastly retinue immediately shrieked and scattered. But this did not diminish the fear of the maidens. In addition, they noticed the strange wounds on Janet’s skin. The marks of elves and fairies! That’s what they seemed to call it. The wounds and scratches from the roses were beginning to form some bizarre symbols on her skin. And people who saw that she was marked by fairies tried not to get close to her. Old Ambrose was the only one who wasn’t frightened. And there was no judgment in his gaze. He looked at Janet as if he sympathized with her distress and wanted to help.

But Janet didn’t feel like she was in trouble. She had only been in a love bed with an elf. So what of it? What difference did it make if the bed was made of grass and the enchanted roses beside it hissed curses at the lovers? What difference did it make whether Tamlane was an elf or a human, if she loved him.

Janet threw her head up proudly when Ambrose spoke in a high-pitched voice:

«Fair Mistress, you seem to be in trouble, you need help.»

«There is nothing wrong with me!» She retorted angrily. That, of course, was a lie. Her dress was torn, her hair mussed, her skin scarred. And her virginity had been given to an elf. So what of it? She didn’t regret any of it herself. It was better not to live at all if she did not see Tamlane again. And with him, she willingly accepted his whole magical world.

Ambrose clearly disagreed with her. He had a premonition of misfortune. But unhappiness would only happen if she failed to get Tamlane out of the fairies’s realm, because then she would have nothing to live for.

Proudly alone, Janet made her way into the castle. Everyone tried to stay as far away from her as possible. Well, she didn’t need their company. She had Tamlane, after all. Better him than all of them. But she didn’t like the creatures that surrounded Tamlane anymore.

In one of the empty halls upstairs, an orange figure of some sort, resembling a pillar of fire, rose up. It was just getting dark. Janet remembered the song-counting that night belonged to the fire elves and day to the water elves. That was probably how they agreed amongst themselves. They shared the time of day, but they continued to feud over territory. It was now just as darkness fell. Night had begun. And the fire elf entered the castle! He can’t do that! This is water elf territory! Janet looked through the opened door and saw several fire figures already circling the table. Their touches were starting to make burnt holes on the tablecloth and the tapestry hanging on the wall. The fire elves laughed. Why did they start sneaking into the castle?

Janet walked in, and they suddenly flared up and disappeared, as if the fire in the fireplace had gone out. But the burnt-edged holes in the tapestry remained. The tapestry itself depicted a hunting scene, but an unusual one. On it, humans and supernatural beings were hunting a monster crawling out of the ground. And around it were woven gold roses in ornaments around the edges. And in the very corner of the tapestry, the elf had his arm around a girl with a lovely white bird perched on her shoulder. While the hunt was going on, he was seducing her. She was dressed in a bride’s dress. And he certainly wasn’t a bridegroom. Janet stared and didn’t immediately find that the holes had suddenly disappeared somewhere, as if the threads of the tapestry had restored themselves. Was it magic? Janet touched the tapestry with her fingers. It’s amazing.

«Madam!» Ambrose’s voice came to her from the threshold. He dared to approach her, though everyone was now frightened. «You shouldn’t have danced with the elves.»

«I didn’t,» said Janet frankly. What she and Tamlane were doing that afternoon, though it looked like a love dance, was in fact a complete fusion of the human body and the supernatural. «I just fell in love with one of them.»

Now the old knight walked up to her and took her by the shoulders with a jerk, as if he wanted to give her a good shaking.

«He has compelled you! He has bewitched you! But there is still a chance for healing. There’s an old healer in the village called Belladonna who can undo a love spell. You must go to her.»

Janet only laughed, softly and melodiously, as if she was a fairy herself.

«Love cannot be cured. You can only make a man unhappy by taking away his love, even if it is the love of an elf.»

«He will ruin you,» Ambrose said sadly. «Even if he loves you sincerely. Magical creatures in love ruin people all the same. We grow old, they stay forever young, we die, they live on, we are weak and vulnerable by nature, and they cannot be penetrated by any weapon. They will rise from their own ashes and bewitch someone next to them to feed on their life force. An elf will not be your loyal protector or devoted lover. Choose another!»

«Would you offer yourself in his place?» Janet couldn’t resist a sarcastic remark. She bit her tongue. She had upset the old knight.

«Forgive me,» she whispered, «but my lover is indispensable to me.»

«Your mother used to say the same thing long ago, and do you know what happened to her?»

«What happened to her? My father is not an elf. He didn’t ruin her,» Janet couldn’t suggest that her mother’s lover could have been anyone other than her father, but that’s what Ambrose was trying to say.

«Once upon a time, your father tried to make peace with the creatures living in the forest so that they would no longer attack his domain. He succeeded. The king of the elves, named Dagda, showed mercy. He decided that humans and elves had nothing to fight over. Both sides, human and magical, tried to get at least a truce. Peace was made. We celebrated. The humans started communicating with the undead, and everyone was happy.»

«And then what happened?»

«Then…» Ambrose began to speak with difficulty. – Then one of the elves seduced your mother, and she left with him. He enchanted her with his beauty, gave her no passage, he sent her golden roses as gifts. At first she resisted him, remembering her marriage vow to be faithful to your father the earl, but then she gave in. Magical creatures show great persistence when they want to achieve something. Amaranta was caught in the net of their king. And we never saw her again. But a lot of terrible things have happened to us since then. You were young and don’t remember, but fields burned, water turned to poison, flames burst from fireplaces and burned people, creepy creatures flew in, taking victims.

«What if the elf who captivated my heart is enchanted, if he is human?»

«Do not believe his speeches. Elves always lie. They lied when they made the truce with us. So they lie to their beloved. They end up ruining them.»

Janet remembered the scarlet and white roses on the border. Ambrose had a point. But there were exceptions.

«What do you want me to do?»

«Try to leave him. He will resist, call out to you, maybe even come to besiege the castle at night with an army of creatures like him, but at the first light of day he will have to leave, unless you yourself willingly come out to him. Magic can be destroyed by resisting it.»

«And if I can’t leave him?»

«Then you’ll die on your own.»

Janet didn’t want to believe that. Besides, Tamlane said he could be saved.

«People see the marks of the magic kingdom on you, and that scares them, but if you heal, they’ll gradually forget all about it.»

«It seems unlikely to me to heal from a desire for him. Even if the marks go away, the feeling remains.»

«Then you will become like me, a man who was once loved and branded by a fairy.»

Janet didn’t believe him at first, but Ambrose unbuttoned his collar and showed a strange sign, as if a red rose had grown right into his flesh. Janet even found a lamp and held it up to him to get a better look. It was definitely branded in the form of some sort of magical mark. Strangely, the branding was still bleeding. Apparently it had been made long ago, back when Ambrose was young. She couldn’t have a fairy falling in love with an old man. Maybe the brand was a mark of her kiss. Surely it was made to subdue both the knight’s will and body. But Ambrose resisted, and the fairy’s mark hurt him. Janet touched the mark with her hand. It vibrated.

«Are you her slave?»

«Morally, yes, but she does not call. And that makes it especially painful for me.»

«My elf knight is not like that. He would not harm me.»

12 3 След.

Tamlane – Prisoner of the Queen of the Fairies – 2. Release

Rose Girls

A Friend of Magical Creatures

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